History, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.

J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

This symposium, supported by the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, will be chaired by Alan K. Henrikson, Lee E. Dirks Professor of Diplomatic History and Director of Diplomatic Studies at the Fletcher School. It will bring together scholars of eighteenth-century war, diplomacy, and geopolitics with modern experts on international relations to discuss a treaty that rewrote the map of North America. Register for that free symposium here.

Meanwhile, the Old State House museum in Boston continues to host an exhibit on the 1763 treaty, including Britain’s actual copy of that treaty on display in this country for the first time. The signatures and seals of the English, French, and Spanish negotiators on the last page of that treaty appear above.

Among the items in that exhibit I found particularly striking was a wampum belt with the year “1766” woven into the pattern, a tribute maintaining good relations with one of the Native American nations of the Great Lakes region a few years after this peace. Also a large map with notes on recent border changes actually engraved into the design. That exhibit runs through 7 October.

That date is also the 250th anniversary of the British government’s “Royal Proclamation of 1763,” which set new rules for governing Canada and maintaining peace with Britain’s Native allies. On Friday, 4 October, the Old State House will host a roundtable on that proclamation chaired by Daniel Richter of the University of Pennsylvania. The panelists will be Colin Calloway of Dartmouth, Heather Welland of S.U.N.Y. Binghamton, and Karl Hele of Concordia. Registration for this event will open soon.